Various products, such as hand soap, lotions, etc., are commonly dispensed through the use of wall-mounted dispensers. These dispenser are found in a wide range of facilities ranging from the home to industrial establishments.
In general, dispensers of this general nature include a mounting plate or back plate which is attached to a vertical surface, such as a wall, and a cover which is hinged to the back plate and movable between open and closed positions.
The contents to be dispensed are contained within a container which rests on the back plate and generally are dispensed by activating a push bar or activating member attached to the cover either on the front or beneath it in order to activate a pump. In that regard, the container bearing the material to be dispensed, such as soap, for example, carries with it a pump which is attached to the container and is disposed generally adjacent the lower portion of the cover so that activation of the push bar or activating member activates the pump to dispense a measured charge of material.
Various latch designs have been developed in order to retain the cover in its closed or operating position and, in view of the wide range of facilities in which these dispensers are used, they do tend to incur a large amount of abuse and unauthorized opening. Examples can be seen in Kanfer U.S. Pat. No. 4,621,749; Bartasevich U.S. Pat. No. 5,265,772; Schroeder U.S. Pat. No. 5,370,267; Bell U.S. Pat. No. 5,443,236; Bell U.S. Pat. No. 5,465,877; Sears U.S. Pat. No. 5,625,659; Schroeder U.S. Pat. No. 5,944,227; Maddox U.S. Pat. No. 6,216,916; Maddox U.S. Pat. No. 6,390,329 and others.
One solution to this problem is the provision of a latch tongue molded into either the front cover of the dispenser or to the back plate and a latch bar or some other means for disengaging and engaging the latch tongue to release the cover for access to the interior of the dispenser in order to replace a spent container.
Refilling of these dispensers is generally a maintenance or janitorial job and it is preferable if access to the interior is limited. In some dispensers of this type, an actual key is employed to unlock the dispenser, but that requires the provision of a separate article and that in itself can be a hindrance where the key is lost or misplaced or simply not available when it is necessary to access the interior.
One drawback to the prior art with the molded latch design is that the latch tongue is integral to a large cabinet component, e.g., the front cover and, therefore, regardless of the latching arrangement used to interengage the cover with the back plate, sufficient force can be applied by a vandal, for example, to the top of the cover and, inasmuch as the dispenser components are generally fabricated from relatively light weight, thin plastic material for economy purposes, the cover will distort sufficiently to cause the dispenser cover to fly open.
Some solutions to this problem would be to make the cover very small in size and provide internal ribs for strength, but, in many installations, in order to minimize the number of times the dispenser has to be refilled, these are fairly large and that solution is not particularly feasible. It is also possible to thicken the wall thickness of the cover, but that adds to the weight of the dispenser and also incurs additional material expense.
Accordingly then, a principal object of this invention is to provide a basically tamper proof latching arrangement whereby, unless the dispenser is virtually destroyed, unauthorized access is prohibited.